Rykrof Enloe - Homeworld - Naboo. Former Republic Commander, who is now an enemy of the Empire. He has a history of entanglements with the Badoo Corba terrorist organization, dating back prior to the Clone Wars. He is a former close friend of Imperial Baron Tylin Gere and was been forced to embark on a desperate mission to acquire an ancient Sith artifact for Tylin - which ended in failure. Since then, he has inadvertently led Imperial forces to a secret Rebel base on Banyss, which was destroyed by Darth Vader's forces. Rykrof has now been taken captive by the Empire and resides in the Imperial penal colony on Tartaaris. Most of those dear to him believe he is now deceased.

Atracion - Homeworld - Mon Calamari. This former slave trader was imprisoned after conspiring to steal a shipment of Coaxium for the crime organization known as Crimson Dawn. He quickly gained the respect of other inmates and became the leader of the largest prison gang in captivity on Tartaaris.

K3-95 - Homeworld - Tartaaris. Pieced together from scrap and given life by an unknown prisoner resident on Tartaaris. He has befriended Rykrof following the recent death of his friend, Garlin Nomad.

The Maker - Homeworld - Unknown. Very little is know about this myserious individual, other than he is the current warden of the Imperial penal colony on Tartaaris. For years, he has crafted custom hunter droids from the countless junk piles on Tartaaris and programmed them to terrorize the prisoner population. Rarely seen by the local garrison, the Maker has recently been stirring due to rumors of a pending prisoner revolt.

Baron Tylin Gere - Homeworld - Naboo. Former close ally of Rykrof Enloe, the two served as Republic Peace Officers prior to the Clone Wars and later as officers in the Grand Army of the Republic. Tylin thirsts for power and has become obsessed with acquiring an ancient Sith artifact, which was recently acquired by Darth Vader, who he secretly sees as a rival. He has taken custody of Alyssa and Caldin Enloe, and ordered the death of Rykrof's father. He believes Rykrof Enloe is dead, once and for all.

Emperor Palpatine - Homeword - Naboo. Dark Lord of the Sith and the undisputed leader of the Galactic Empire. He attempted to mold Rykrof Enloe as the ideal Imperial officer but failed. He takes great interest in Baron Tylin Gere's personal quests for power and admires his ambition.

Darth Vader - Homeworld - Tatooine. Dark Lord of the Sith and follows the instructions of his master, Emperor Palpatine. During the Clone Wars, he was once friends with Rykrof Enloe. He considers Rykrof a traitor to the Empire but also is fully aware that Rykrof once helped protect Padme Amidala, and rather than killing him, he has spared Rykrof's life by sending him to a secret penal colony on Tartaaris. However, his loyalties to Emperor Palpatine are secure.

Deep in the Outer Rim, Tartaaris servers as an undisclosed penal colony for former Separatists and other undesirables.

Many innocent beings have suffered immeasurably in the Imperial compound...

...leading one band of prisoners to rise against their oppressors.

Having already taken out a pair of Stormtroopers, the inmates know it won't be long before the Imperial authorities respond with force.

"How much further?" Atracion growls impatiently."Where is this supposed secret entrance into the complex?"

"I'm not quite sure," K3-95 admits. "Garlin never provided me with the exact coordinates, but based on my estimates, it should be just up ahead."

"We have to be getting close," Rykrof offers."Keep your eyes open for signs of a secret doorway... hatch... anything."

"You told us you knew how to get in," Lits gnarls.

"Well, it does look like we are nearing something important," the droid replies, observing the Imperial styled structures.

"Could it be under us?" Rykrof wonders aloud."Maybe the winds shifted the sands and covered a doorway?"

"I don't like this," Calo says, changing the subject."It's too quiet... we haven't seen any droids or activity since we took out those troops."

"He's right," Sarlo nods."What if we're walking into a trap? And where's the flank team?"

"I know," Rykrof agrees."Something's not right."

"K3, I think you might need this."

"Why thank you," the droid replies, gripping the blaster."It has been quite some time since I've handled one of these."

"Just don't give us any reason to regret giving you one, droid."

"We need to thin out... we're too exposed," Rykrof says to Atracion.

"Drop your weapons," a metallic voice suddenly orders the group.

"Damn..."

"Sir, I would not advise doing anything these mechanical abominations tell us to do."

For a brief moment, the droids remain frozen...

"We are here to see the Maker," Rykrof shouts to the sentinel droid.

"Grant us a ship to get off this planet, and we won't be of any trouble."

"Terminate them."

"Destroy... Destroy... Destroy..."

"Here they come!"

Rykrof ignites his lightsaber as the droids race toward the inmates!

"FLESH!"

"They've got us surrounded!"

A laser blast then rips through Parto's chest...

...as a pair of Viper droids fire at the group!

"Those probes are going to tear us apart!"

"I'm on it!" Velsa shouts...

...she then moves her aged walker into position...

...blasting the lead droid to pieces!

"Velsa! Behind you!"

But it's too late as the walker takes a heavy blast...

...crashing to the ground!

The prisoners continue to fight for their lives...

...but the sentinel droid penetrates their position!

Sarlo fires a desperate blast at the menace...

...as a laser blast rips into K3-95!

"Rykrof... I'm... sor...."

"Dammit!"

A laser blast then strikes Calo!

Rykrof then turns to face the sentinel droid...

...narrowly avoiding a deadly blow!

In desperation, Velsa sprints from the walker...

...but is instantly torn down!

The sentinel begins to lunge for Rykrof...

...but is met with a deep slash across its torso!

Rykrof then spins to face the remaining attackers...

...and finds himself facing the Maker!

"You're next... WHATEVER you are."

"You are beaten, Enloe," the Maker smiles.

"When you first arrived, my orders were to grant you leniency."

"Surrender your weapons, and only your friends will suffer..."

"...for I will show you ...mercy."

Without warning, a blast of energy slams through the Maker's cranial dome!

His body then bursts into an electrical convulsion!

Astonished, Rykrof looks into the distance...

...spotting survivors of Atracion's flank team...

...Halri Kidell and Helmo Iteris!

"Come on!" Rykrof shouts with renewed hope!

"The Maker's DEAD!"

Helmo then fires another blast...

...destroying the second Viper droid!

The survivors quickly gather at the scene of the massacre.

"This was a trap," Atracion growls."We could of all been killed."

"I'm sorry... but if we don't stand against them, we're as good as dead," Rykrof firmly replies.

"No time to argue," Halri says."It won't be long before the Imperials send the garrison out to finish us off."

"Chief Rolem will make us suffer."

"Right," Rykrof agrees."We need to carry on before they have time to react."

"Enloe..." calls the visage of the Maker, now in the body of a different droid!

"What the hell's going on?"

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"

Another visage then emerges, charging directly at the group!

It quickly leaps onto Lits!

"We have to get out of here!"

Lits is then torn to shreds by the abomination!

Rykrof instinctively turns and runs for his life!

"Get out of here!" Helmo shouts.

With the Maker distracted, Rykrof and the others sprint to the distance...

...as the prisoner sacrifices himself for the group!

Rykrof and the others continue their desperate escape...

"We have to get back to base," Halri gasps.

"That's exactly where the Stormtroopers will be waiting for us," Rykrof argues.

"We go in there."

"The sewers?" Atracion retorts."Are you crazy?"

"The DWELLERS live in there," Halri warns."They're worse than the Maker's droids!"

Another great episode! As a long-time reader, I love seeing how your diorama and photography skills have progressed. Speaking of dioramas, I'm looking at all of the misc. vehicle parts (TIE fighter cockpits & wings, AT-AT legs, etc.) thinking, "My goodness, I wonder how much money is tied into this?" I know like most Star Wars collectors, as Hasbro has improved the sculpting of vehicles (big-wing TIE,BAT-AT) you probably have older (POTF2) versions left over for customizing & fodder.

I love the intro text to this much better than the crawl. It has sort of a "Solo" movie homage to it. By the way, I'm not sure where you got the image of the planet in the first shot, but that is a cool looking planet.

The story is well paced. The lighting to the pictures gives it that "other worldly" look. As usual, the action jumps off the screen. Absolutely LOVE this scrap yard looking diorama. There is so much going on in the junk and fodder in this place: Is that a Galoob Micro Machine Bespin Cloud City? And you even threw in a chainsaw chain in a few pics! How cool is that!

Another great episode! As a long-time reader, I love seeing how your diorama and photography skills have progressed. Speaking of dioramas, I'm looking at all of the misc. vehicle parts (TIE fighter cockpits & wings, AT-AT legs, etc.) thinking, "My goodness, I wonder how much money is tied into this?" I know like most Star Wars collectors, as Hasbro has improved the sculpting of vehicles (big-wing TIE,BAT-AT) you probably have older (POTF2) versions left over for customizing & fodder.

Thanks Jason - it's so cool that you've been keeping up with these, that means a lot of me and I know it can be hard reading through long chapters like this in this medium.

Yeah, the dioramas over time have gotten better I think, the photography is something that I really struggle with still. Just not my area of expertise... I need to eventually invest in the right camera and lighting techniques - I have such a crappy work space to photograph all of this too so it's kind of difficult.

I do have older versions of vehicles used for fodder but also have at times found some good deals at garage sales and clearance items.

jlw515 wrote:I love the intro text to this much better than the crawl. It has sort of a "Solo" movie homage to it. By the way, I'm not sure where you got the image of the planet in the first shot, but that is a cool looking planet.

Yes - I changed the text based on feedback from you and others. I plan to go back and update that for the older stories in "Trials" as well in a bit. I think the planet was a found image on google, then I altered it - been using that image for a few chapters now.

jlw515 wrote:The story is well paced. The lighting to the pictures gives it that "other worldly" look. As usual, the action jumps off the screen. Absolutely LOVE this scrap yard looking diorama. There is so much going on in the junk and fodder in this place: Is that a Galoob Micro Machine Bespin Cloud City? And you even threw in a chainsaw chain in a few pics! How cool is that!

Pacing can be hard at times to make it feel right, I try to make these to where they are not boring (but I'm sure some people would find these extremely boring!)... one of the keys I think is to try and let the photo do most of the talking... place the text for each picture directly below the image, and keep it short and sweet - don't make the reader have to think too much. I am not an elegant writer, and I also find myself easily distracted if text becomes cumbersome when reading something - so I try and keep that in mind as much as possible.

Yes - you did see a Galoob micro Cloud City! I ended up with a few of those somehow and thought they could work for some sort of droid or structures in the 3.75" scale. And the chain - lol! Good eye.

As soon as they teased that walker a while back, I wanted it for my photonovels, ha ha. I figured this one looked Star Warsy enough to not need to be customized, at least in my opinion. I did blur out the words on the front of the walker in the pics though.

This chapter was awesome! The only issue is that it is not long enough. I liked the references to solo that you put into atracion's backstory, and I am intrigued about both the maker and the dwellers. I still have to go through and look at all of the dioramas, but overall it was a great chapter.

ImperialOfficer wrote:This chapter was awesome! The only issue is that it is not long enough. I liked the references to solo that you put into atracion's backstory, and I am intrigued about both the maker and the dwellers. I still have to go through and look at all of the dioramas, but overall it was a great chapter.

Thanks for reading and the feedback!

As for the not long enough part, I agree some with that - I could have made this longer (removed maybe a dozen pics). I removed them because I felt it was getting too drawn out, and I was also wary of adding another scene because as it stands, the chapter was a bit over 100 pics and I'm afraid people will stop reading once it gets to a certain point... even more than 20 or so frames can scare people off, I'm afraid...?

More to come on the Maker and the Dwellers - I have some new customs and more dioramas to work on.

I'll also snap a pic soon of all the various diorama pieces for this chapter in a pic to give some perspective on what a mess I create with these.

Scenery--from the red clay sand to the junk greeblies strewn across the landscape to the excellent building facades the background allows the story to come alive. Special praise is garnered for the sewer; down to the greenish liquid on the lip of the opening. Wonderful use of the acid rain mech too.

Figures: Again the unique look of individual prisoners in orange is really nice. The battle robots using iron man parts, Doctor who, assorted star wars and droids I can't make out are really nice. Would love more recipes on those pieces.

Plot: Bold. Be sure to read even the character descriptions as they have been updated. Good mix of action and battle scenes with strong dialogue. Vesla came to the rescue and I thought she might save the day for all. In fact I started to wonder if we might see her more in the future. But alas...it was not meant to be. The quarren gang boss is quite fun and has some superb lines such as follow the fool and something to the effect of all of Enloe's ideas wind up killing his men.

The biggest surprise is the Maker. What is he now? What has he ever been. Loved how his consciousness (visage was your wording) moved from one robot body to another and in fact multiples at once. I must admit the villain was not necessarily grabbing my interest as say our fiendish Baron. That is a character development to start off a Republic Peace officer from Naboo to now an evil minion of the Emperor. But the Maker's story is one that needs to be understood. Looking forward to knowing about the dwellers. (edited; forgot to mention them the first go around.)

Did I miss something or did the droid that accompanied Enloe die in the battle? Where is he? It is possible my computer which was jumping some while I read hid the droid's demise from me. I will have to reread. (EDIT: Asked and answered. The droid died quickly)

So the questions continue to build: 1) How long will Enloe be here? 2) What will the outside world be like once he does escape? 3) Will Freelo have changed much? 4) What possible Solo or Rebels characters might Enloe meet when he does leave? I can't even ask what about Alyssa and Calden; I am thinking Calden is going to be a real imperial goose stepper.

Last edited by UKHistory on Sat Jun 09, 2018 10:04 am, edited 2 times in total.

Just read it a second time, wow. Really noticed the dynamic action poses, how did you put the guy in midair being thrust away from an explosive impact?? And the viper droid crashing into the wall as it's hit?! Amazing.